Anti-cancer efforts have never tasted as delicious, as juicy and as scrumptious as this! You will fall in love more with peaches and plums when you know that these juicy fruits have anti-cancer properties especially against breast cancer.
In a study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, researchers in Texas have discovered that extracts from peaches and plums eradicated even the most aggressive breast cancer cells. The good news: The surrounding healthy cells largely remain untouched, thus, allowing for a targeted kill!
The researchers initially studied the phytonutrients and antioxidants in these two fleshy fruits. Their findings were surprising: Peaches and plums have higher contents than blueberries, which are considered superfoods.
Two common varieties were chosen in the study: the Black Splendor plum and the Rich Lady peach. You can easily buy these commercial varieties from your supermarket or farmers’ market.
Their next step was to determine the anticancer properties, if any, of these two fleshy fruits. Breast cancer was chosen as the test because it is the most common cancer in women with 16% of deaths in females attributed to it.
Both fruits contained two specific phenols, namely, chlorogenic and neochlorogenic that were shown to have targeted anticancer properties. It must be emphasized that both phenols are common in virtually all fruits but stone fruits like peaches and plums contain exceptionally high levels. This may explain why peaches and plums have promising anticancer uses provided further research is performed.
The researchers carried their experiments further from the petri dish to animals. The results were similar in that these two phenols prevented cancer cells from metastasizing in animals, too.
What is the implication of the study? Conventional anticancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy can kill cancer cells but can also kill the surrounding healthy cells. The side effects of such non-targeted killing of cells adversely affect the quality of life for patients, said side effects of which include hair loss, extreme nausea and vomiting, and loss of appetite.
With the targeted killing of cancer cells possible through the use of extracts from peaches and plums, we are getting nearer to the most effective treatment of cancer especially breast cancer.
Further research is necessary, of course, but for now you can always eat more peaches and plums to lessen your risks for cancer or to help in your cancer treatment. Besides, peaches and plums are delicious and that’s good enough reason to enjoy these nutritious fruits.